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Love 'em or hate 'em, family Christmas letters have become an annual ritual. They arrive each year in holiday cards from friends and family, but rather than providing a fun update on the writers' lives, they often become fodder for jokes about poor writing and excessive bragging. Here's how to create letters that will leave your readers grinning rather than groaning.
1. Be yourself.
This is the cardinal rule of holiday letter writing. Just be yourself. When friends and family read your letter, they should be able to tell that you wrote it. It shouldn't read like something penned by your seventh grade English teacher.
2. Don't brag.
If something good happened to you and your family, announce it, but keep it low-key. Readers don't enjoy gloating. Remember when you played sports in school and had to shake hands with the losing team after winning a great victory? Remember how to be a good sport and don't brag or exaggerate.
3. Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.
If you're tempted to add words like "great" and "exciting" and "wonderful" in every sentence, take a break and see rule #1 above.
4. Be creative.
Your Christmas letter doesn't have to be a long narrative of everything that happened to your family day by day. Be creative. Use bullet points, create a puzzle, or turn it into a multiple-choice quiz. You can find ideas at ChristmasLetterTips.com. Or go digital! If printed paper is too 20th century for you or you're worried about your carbon footprint, post your Christmas letter online on MySpace, your blog or any other personal web site.
5. Make it colorful.
Holiday letters are easier and more fun to read when you spice them up with family photos, Christmas clip art, or other images (such as scanned children's artwork). You can buy Christmas letter templates or stationery online or at your local stores. You can also spice up the envelopes you'll use to send your letters by creating personalized stamps or sending your letters to North Pole, AK and getting a North Pole postmark.
6. Read it out loud.
Have you succeeded in writing an informative, entertaining holiday letter? Read it out loud, or have someone else read it to you. If it doesn't sound right, try again.
7. Add a personal note.
Add one or two handwritten lines at the bottom of each letter to add a personal touch and leave your readers feeling good.
